Trains, Darth Vader, and Santa. What a mix!

It turns out, this past weekend (Saturday to be exact), there was a LOT going on in our town!  Thanks to Facebook, we were informed of a few fun things that we decided we needed to do. 

Ramsey and I started out going to McDonald's, having a nice mother/son lunch.  Mr. Social met a little girl named Misty that became his new friend.  She was a pretty little 7-year-old blonde that Ramsey grew fond of.  :-)   Add yet another girlfriend to his little black book!

Then, we met Bridger, Kevin, and Kristi at the train depot.  (Connor had to work and Eric stayed home to clean and do laundry - nice eh?!)   The depot was having an open house in the basement.

They were featuring all of their model trains and set-ups.  It was amazing!  There were about seven different set-ups there, all of which were extremely detailed... and huge.

There were different types of trains and different scenarios of our town, throughout various periods in history.

I bought a few raffle tickets, in the hopes that Ramsey would win the locomotive set.  Fingers crossed!

One of the "train conductors" on site let Bridger and Ramsey use the remote control to "toot the horn".

They certainly got a charge out of making the whistles blow!

After about an hour, I took the boys to a quaint little bakery downtown.  I knew they had fancy Christmas cookies.   The boys each chowed down a beautifully iced snowflake and I ordered a gingerbread French macaroon.  Heavenly!

Santa was at this particular bakery, so the boys were able to say hello and wish him a Merry Christmas.  I wasn't able to get a picture because the line of kids waiting to see him was winding around the outside of the building!

Then, it was off to the mall!  I had heard that Darth Vader was going to be there (somewhere!).  Both Bridger and Ramsey were excited for this!  But, since he wasn't supposed to arrive until 2:00, we had some time to kill.  So, the boys played like mad on the indoor play set.

 As a [sometimes overprotective] Mom, I was a bit leery of Ramsey climbing up SO HIGH.  But, with Bridger along, I knew they'd play together and that Bridger would watch out for Ramsey.

 Those two squirrels played for about a half an hour, going up and down, across the bridges, inside the look-out towers, etc.  Every time I would see them, I'd look again and they'd be clear on the other side of the huge contraption!

For a while, they thought it was funny to pretend they were "in jail".  Yes, partners in crime, they were!

At 2:00, it was time to go try to find Darth Vader.  The three of us walked up and down the mall, searching every nook and cranny.  No luck.  We asked people if they'd seen him.  No one had.

We did manage to see Santa and his helpers though.  Again, no pictures, due to a very long line to see him!  The boys waved.  Bridger wondered how Santa could get to the mall SO QUICKLY; we had just seen him minutes before at the bakery!   We concluded that Santa must have a few "helpers" for all of the P.R. appearances.

Thinking that the Darth Vader sighting was futile, we decided it was time to leave.  Just then, we found him!  Darth Vader was near the movie theater.

He was there with a storm trooper and Wicket the Ewok!  Ramsey was a bit hesitant at first.

 He still wasn't quite sure what to think of the Ewok.

Ramsey gave Darth Vader one of his Star Wars encyclopedias to sign, in which Darth Vader wrote, "The force is with you. ~ Darth"

 Ramsey thought that was pretty cool.

 So much excitement for one day!  But, we still had groceries to get at Wally World (the least-fun part of the day.)  Bridger wanted to go with us, so we high-tailed it on over there.  The place was packed (ugh).

But, on the way in, one of the greeters had whispered to me, "Santa's here!", so I was sure to keep my eyes peeled for him.  As we started grabbing the necessities (and a few treats, of course), I heard a

 "Ho Ho Ho!!".  Bridger's and Ramsey's eyes got big.  It was our mission to find him, right then and there.

With Bridger hanging on to the front of the cart and Ramsey singing "Jingle Bells" (the entire time we were in Walmart, by the way! lol), we bolted.  We found Santa near the bread aisle.  Santa and his helper gave the boys candy canes and wished them a Merry Christmas.

We then went back to our shopping, singing Christmas carols (Bridger and I both joined in - people were laughing and smiling... probably thinking we're all nuts!).

We heard Santa's "Ho Ho Ho's" again.  Bridger's eyes got big again and he asked if we could go find him.  Off we raced again.  When we saw him, Ramsey yelled "Santa, WAIT!".  He stopped, Ramsey wished him a "Merry Christmas!" (again), and Bridger tugged on his shirt sleeve, waved, and sweetly said "HI!".

We did this about two more times.  I joked with the boys that we were the "Santa stalkers"!

Bridger decided that the "real Santa" was probably the second gentleman that we saw in the mall.  Ramsey shook his head in agreement, as did I.

 

Super fun day! 

Though we were bushed when we got home, we were already planning our slumber party get-together for after Christmas.  Hopefully we'll have some snow by then so we can go sledding!